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Counseling and Psychotherapy for Adults and Couples
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Decision Making and Infertility Treatment
For individuals and couples facing infertility, finding a way towards resolution can be extremely challenging. It can feel as if you’re embarking on a road trip in stormy weather – taking a trip you never expected through unfamiliar terrain. There may be detours along the way, you don’t have forever to get there, and it can be quite expensive. Along the way, there are many decisions to make, often with little guidance and with uncertain outcomes.
At the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, I presented recent research on the decision-making process of women who were facing infertility. My colleagues and I studied over 400 women who were considering infertility treatment, finding that most of them approached the decision-making task by weighing the pros and cons of different options. Early in the decision process, women also considered what they might do if the treatments or other options were unsuccessful. It was often difficult for women to think beyond pregnancy or having a child, to future issues that might arise if treatments were successful. Many women who were still waiting for test results had made provisional decisions about what they would do, but they found the decision process significantly more difficult than did women who were in a position to move forward.
Earlier research conducted by my research team indicates that, when deciding among options, women and men share similar views about what is most important to them. These include feeling secure that their child cannot be taken from them, avoiding marital problems, not having a miscarriage, and the desire to have a healthy child.
Stay tuned to this website for updates to this page.
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